[mihaita666]

Hello everybody. I don't know how many of you follow romanian football and how many of you really know anything about this league. Since Im romanian, I know almost everything about this league and I would like to share my knowledge with all of you.
First of all, in Romania, football(soccer) is by far the most important and followed sport.
Our league contains 18 teams. These year, the champion goes directly in the Uefa Champions League groups, the runner up goes into 2nd qualifying of Uefa Champions League. Also, the 3rd, 4th and 5th teams plus the winner of the Romanian Cup go into Uefa Europa League (the former Uefa Cup)
Traditionally, the biggest clubs in Romania are Steaua Bucuresti and Dinamo Bucuresti. They have won in between 39 championships and many Romanian Cups.
Over the last years, other teams became strong sides, the chairmen investing massively.
Next, I will present each teams from the championship (the order is the table at this moment)

1. FC Brasov (ardeal)
Objective : one the 1st 8 positions, eventually qualifying for the Uefa Europa League
Best players : Mihai Roman(midfielder), Danut Coman (goalkeeper), Dorel Zaharia (stricker).

Solid team, especially in the defense and midfield.They have some problems scoring goals. One weakness of this club is that they don't have a grat supprt at home matches.

2. Unirea Urziceni (muntenia)
Objective : winning the title
Best Players : Gerorge Galamaz (defender), Ionut Apostol (forward), Vasile Maftei (defender)

Current title holder, this team has a fantastic coach, Dan Petrescu, and a very good manager, Mihai Stoica. With a very well organised football, they shocked the whole coutry by winning the title last year. Also, they've had a great start of the seasson, especially since they've already played most of their derbies.

3. Pandurii Tg-Jiu (oltenia)
Objective : avoiding the relegation
Best players : Adrian Chibulcutean (defender), Madalin Murgan (midfielder), Razvan Stanca (goalkeeper).

PAndurii is one of the most defensive teams in Romania. Their coach, Sorin Cartu is very well known for his extremly defensive style which feets perfectly Pandurii's game philosophy.

4. Dinamo Bucuresti (bucuresti)
Objective : winning the title
Best players : Ousmanne N'Doye (midfielder), Adrian Cristea (midfielder), Florin Bratu(stricker)

After missing the title in the last 3 matches last seasson, Dinamo wants to win it this year. Dinamo is traditionally a team with a very opened game, having a good goals/match ration (both scored and received). After important matches in european competitions or romanian derbies they tend to lose concentration and fail to win against poor opponents. Their fans are fanatic but since they are against the executive board, they are not supporting the team very well, especially when Dinamo is down by one or two goals.

5. Steaua Bucuresti (bucuresti)
objective : winning the title
Best Players : Banel Nicolita (midfielder), Bogan Stancu (stricker), Juan Carlos Toja(midfielder)

Steaua, held by a very rich businessman(gigi Becali) is the greatest club in Romania ever. After missing the title over the last year, and after a pathetic seasson (2008-2009), Steaua started to invest more in young players, so this year could not be their year. For the moment,. Steaua has many injured players, so the team is very thin, but once they will be back on track, Steaua will be fighting for the title this year.

6. CFR Cluj (ardeal)
objective : winning the title
Best Players : Emanuelle Kone (stricker), Sebastian Dubarbier (midfielder), Tony(defender)

CFR Cluj has the best squad in Romania. However, after winning the title in 2008, they had a poor seasson. this year things look a bit differently, but not much. CFR is the team with the biggest number of foreigner players and hasn't got a real leader of the dressing room. They also have a portugues coach. One of the biggest poblems of Cluj is that they don't have many fans on away matches, and therefore they lose many points away. On theri own stadium, they are one of the best team.

7. Rapid Bucuresti (bucuresti)
objective : finnish in the "european zone"
best players : Costin Lazar (midfielder), Luciano Spadacio (forward), Ionut Herea (Midfielder)

Rapid is well known romanian club, with a lot of fans. However, after a disasterous seasson (both financial and as results), the chairman seriously reduced the team's buget and the player's wages. Many players were sold and very few came. Since their chairman is busier looking for someone to buy the club, Rapid shouldn't be pretending too much this year. They have many and loyal fans, and winning in "giulesti" is very difficult.

8. FC Vaslui (moldova)
objective : finnish in the "european zone"
best players : Mike Temwanjira (stricker), Wesley (midfielder), Stanislav Ghencev(midfielder)
Vaslui is one the youngest romanian club, being held by the former refferee Adrian Porumboiu. Vaslui is a very growing team, from year to year. Vaslui has good offensive play, but also they suffer from something that we call here "the outside-bucuresti problem" (many teams used to have problems finnishing on the top positions, losing important positions at the end of the seasson).Good team at home.

9. International Curtea de Arges (muntenia)
objectiove : avoiding the relegation
best players :

This team is for the first time in the romanian first league. They have a very impressive start and there are all the chances that this team will accomplish their goal, avoiding the relegation.

10. FC Timisoara (banat)
objective : winning the title
best players : Gigel Bucur (stricker), Dare Nibombe (defender),Artiom Karamian (winger)

FC Timisoara is a very important romanian team, also. After finnishing on the 2nd position last year, they want to win the title, but no one really believes this will happen. Defensivly, they are one of the best teams here, but they don't actually have a creative midfielder. The like, since having very fast players, playing on the counter-attack.

11. Universitatea Craiova (oltenia)
objective : finnish in the "european zone"
best players : Eugen Trica (midfielder), Florin Costea (forward), Julius Wobay(winger)

Craiova is indeed a very passionate team. With a very proud chairman (especially proud of being born in this region), Craiova is somehow similar to Athetic Bilbao from Spain. They have many players born in the region. Their start of the seasson is not at all a good one, but there are rumours that a new coach will join Craiova, so the concentration of the players is a bit low. They are very good at home, especially with top teams, and when the team has a good series of results, the fans play a very important role.

12. Otelul Galati (moldova)
objective : avoiding the relegation
Best players : Gabriel Paraschiv (forward), Mircea Axente(stricker)

Otelul has serious financial problemes and therere many good players were sold this summer; the result is that the squad is on of the most unexperienced and young team from the first league. They will have serious problems this year

13. Gaz Metan Medias (ardeal)
objective :avoiding the relegation
best players : Eric (midfielder), Cristian Bud (stricker)

Gaz Metan Medias is probably the most spectacular team in romania, averageing a very high number of goals/per match (scored and received). The play a very offensive player and will struggle hardly to avoid the relegation this seasson.

14. Astra ploiesti (muntenia)
objective : avoiding the relegation
best players :

Astra Ploiesti, another promoted team, is going to have a very difficult seasson trying to avoid relegation. Thez will be fighting against poor teams and try to catch some points against big teams. They have a very good coach, which may finally proove to be their salvation this seasson.

15. Unirea Alba-Iulia (ardeal)
objective :avoiding the relegation
best players :

Pretty much the same situation as Asstra ploiesti, unirea Alba-Iulia is another new team in the first league. But they have nice comebacks and have some chances to avoid relegation.

16. Politehnica Iasi
objective : avoiding the relegation
best players : Ionut Balba(stricker), Cristi Bratu (midfielder)

Just like Otelul Galati, Politehnica Iasi has serious financial problems this year. They've already spent many seasson in this league and hired a new coach to fight against relegation. I think that they will survive.

17. Ceahlaul Piatra-Neamt
objective :avoiding the relegation
best players

Ceahlaul is a not so ready team for the 1st romanian league; the promoted last seasson but had a very difficult start of the seasson. Having a young team and an unexperienced coach, they will probably go back into the second league

18. Gloria Bistrita
objective :avoiding the relegation
best players

Gloria Bistrita 1st promoted at the begining of the 90's and never fought for top positions nor had problems with relegation. But looks like they will finally relegate, being crushed by the economic criss and having very poor squad. Matches on their ground do not represent an atraction fo the locals.

Generally, romanian league is an "under 2.5 league".

I hope that you find this useful and im going to give some tips for the romanian league.

[PortsDave]

Welcome to the forums.

I look forward to your picks.

[smitch124]

Look forward to your plays and analysis!!

[Karayilan9]

Great write up!
Its good to see Romanian soccer becoming a rising force, Hagi and Lucescu are huge in Turkey!

I have followed the league and there seem to be a nice trend for Under2.5's like you said but I make sure I have people who know the language working with me when I cap as there is information that doesn't make it into English until after the game or a few days after.

BOL

[TurkzZ]

fantastic write up dude, welcome onboard, being a galatasary fan, 1 special romanian comes into mind, the legend Hagi , best of luck dude , feel free to drop a pm if you need anything

[kmarinouofm]

i hope we can return the favor..

[mihaita666]

im glad to see that some of you are interested in my picks and i hope i won't let you down.
i've forgot to mention certain things about our league. The number of relegated teams is four (4); in december, our championships takes a few mounths break due to bad weather conditions.
Also, in brackets, after every team i wrote the region where they are from so you may see when a local derby is being played.
We have 3 great derbies here, involving any 2 of Steaua, Dinamo, Rapid.
Other great clashes include any 2 of : Unirea Urziceni, CFR Cluj, FC Timisoara, Universitatea Craiova and FC Vaslui (and of course the three teams from bucharest from above).
5 of our teams play in European competitions this year : Unirea Urziceni (Uefa Champions League), Steaua, Dinamo, FC Timisoara, CFR Cluj (Uefa Europa League)

[moto_noob]

hope to start seeing yur picks soon

[mihaita666]

well, wait until next weekend. today there is a very close match played, and i'd say poli iasi - universitatea craiova x2, but its riscky.

[mihaita666]

if u dont mind, i will write here several infos about romanian teams in european competitions.
So, on wednesday, unirea urziceni takes on sevilla in group G opener. all the bookies see unirea urziceni with absolutely no chance , offering extremly high odds. well, lets not forget what the other two romanian teams have done on thier debut in here: 2006/2007 - dinamo kiev - steaua bucuresti 1-4; 2008/2009 as roma - cfr cluj 1-2. The situation is kinda similar, and u could try unirea urziceni with +2 for an odd close to 2.00. Unirea urziceni is a very well organized team, and last years they drew 0-0 against Hamburg SV, away. The capacity of that stadium is twice bigger than the population of Urziceni ).

In Uefa Europa League, FC Timisoara goes to Amsterdam and the odds are pretty much similar to those from the previous match i've talked about. But i dont really think that timisoara has any chance, as they are in a 4 matches without winning streak. Ajax comes after a 6-0 win at home. Timisoara has a good defense and two excellent defensive midfielders (alexa and bourceanu) and very fast players in attack. So if they have any counter-attack opportunitties, they may be sharp.
It's very important how do they start the match. Timisoara's purpose is to maintain a clean sheet as long as possible. I think that it could be a good match to follow at live betting.

Thursday

Dinamo Bucuresti is the other romanian team playing tommorow in Uefa Europa League; the go to Austria to play w/ Sturm Graz. Some of you may remember the amazing performance of Dinamo in the previous round; after loosing 3-0 at home (uefa decision, for fans invading the pitch, the score was 2-0 in the 88th minute) the won 3-0 and went through after thrilling penalties (10-9) against Slovan Liberec. After that, they won the big derby, at Steaua. Last weekend, Dinamo lost at home but I saw the match, they played better and the goal was extremly stupid : one dinamo's defender wanted to clear the ball from his box and he hit the back of a stricker and got in the net. Dinamo will play well at Graz, they will go there to win, im very sure of this. They have reasons to do it : Sturm Graz is their weakest opponent ( they also play against Galatasaray and Panatinaikos) and they will play the first two matches at home with no fans at all, as their stadium is suspended.

Steaua Bucuresti plays their first match at home against Sheriff Tiraspol, from Republic of Moldova. The match will be without fans (in a previous round, steaus's fans have been acused of rasism and therefore, they were suspended 2 matches in europa league). But this means nothing, since we're used to play without fans . Steaua won the previous match, 4-2 at Gaz Metan Medias, after a fabulous second half, when steaua scored 3 goals. In european competitions, steaua won all their 6 matches so far with Ujpest (2-0, 2-1), Motherwell (3-0, 3-1) and St. Patrick (3-0, 2-1) so there should be no problem winning against the moldavian tomorrow evening. i think u should try Steaua (-1.5) for excellent odd, around 2.5

[mihaita666]

check out my sbr blog for all my cks for this weekend in the Romanian Liga I. GOOD LUCK

[TurkzZ]

nice 1st day, 1st game was an under and away win

[mihaita666]

today im going for an over at vaslui - timisoara and for cfr cluj to win, both odds are very good

[TurkzZ]

good luck on the plays

[mihaita666]

useful information about the near future of Steaua Bucuresti (for whoever wants to bet on them or against them).
Steaua is going through very difficult period, after the change of manager (cristiano bergodi), who was fired by the chairman Gigi Becali because the italian didn't allow him to enter the locker room at the half time match against sheriff tiraspol. The players are very sad about this.
Steaua's new star, Cristian Tanase, started to play for the team. He is an offensive midfielder, coming from FC Arges, the team who produced several great players, such as Nicolae Dica, Danut Coman (romanian national team gk) and the well known Adrian Mutu.
Fortunely, one of our best defensive players, Ionut Rada, has been included in the first eleven(he was very close to sign with a foreign team and was considered not focuse4d in order to play. With Rada in the 1st team, Steaua's defense is much stronger.
Romeo Surdu is injured/ He plays excelently next to Bogdan Stancu. Meanwhile, he is replaced in the 1st team by the greek stricker Pantelis Kapetanos. The comunication between Stancu and the greek is not a great one.
Steaua has severe problems with the pitch; After a very hot summer, looks like we have few grass left but in about 1 mounth, things should be better. This means a lot of under 2.5 matches.

[mihaita666]

LE on the previous post.
I dont suggest u many over 2.5 at home for steaua, especially since small teams come here to defend the 0-0. Also,, altough Steaua won all the matches away so far, this doesn't meant they are stronger on other pitches. For exemple, steaua - ceahlaul was a match won after the 80's minute. Otelul - Steaua 0-1 was a match in which the home team had more than 6 huge goal attemps, while steaua scored at one of their only chance. They play against Brasov next match, and whatever brasov does against Cluj, Steaua will have a very difficult match there.

[mihaita666]

updates :
After the last round, two teams fired their managers (it's something that happens often here). Universitatea Craiova will be a playing better in the next matches, im sure they will. Their new manager is a a good starter always.
Also, FC Vaslui have a anew manager, and that wasn't quite a good news.
Anyway, it is said that a change of manager produces a shock at the team, and the players want to impress him from the begining. U could try a parlay of two x2 from this two matches : poli timisoara - universitatea craiova, Unirea Alba-Iulia - FC Vaslui.

[mihaita666]

news about our wonderful league :

dinamo fired Dario Bonetti after the defeat against PAO in Uefa Europa League, 1-0. He upseted some of the people with the money from dinamo; they accused him that dinamo is not playing offensively. In the next period, Dinamo might lose unexpectedly, so pay attention.

FC Vaslui new coach, former steaua's legend, marius lacatus, had a great start with his new team, after a 3-1 victory against astra ploiesti. FC Vaslui has a very strong squad and don't get deceived by their place at this moment. the same is available for Universitatea Craiova.

After losing 3-0 at home against Dinamo Zagreb, Timisoara's coach is in big danger of being fired. Their chairman, marian iancu, very known for not having patience with the team's coaches, said that he felt humiliated by the score and mentioned that Sabau's future at timisoara is not a long one under this circumstances. Timisoara have big problems sscoring goals, so dont' risk fortunes on their games.

Hope this information help you when/if betting on our league. GOOD LUCK